A thorn???? Um... still a little confused

This week's Brave topic was:

I am suffering a thorn

okay.


Paul talked about suffering a thorn in 2 corinthians. He begged for God to remove it... didn't happen because God was teaching and revealing to Paul that HE is sufficient in WEAKNESS!! 

Angela acknowledges that some women will be perplexed (good work huh?) about this subject... YEP! 


She describes a thorn as someone, something, a sin, etc that is constantly there and causes pain, doubt, discouragement CONSISTENTLY. 


I thought and thought and thought... and OF COURSE I have issues. Yes, people get on my nerves sometimes. Yes, there are relationships in my life that aren't good. Yes, I am insecure but that doesn't control me. but... a thorn?? Not sure.  There is ONE thing in my life currently that causes pain and doubt and trouble - not gonna explain any details about this... maybe one day - so as I went through the study I applied the material to that one thing.  I don't know if it is "correct," but it's what happened. :)


Angela really emphasized a few things

• A thorn cannot be removed by your own power 
• The originator of the thorn is SATAN
• A thorn torments the soul with pain and doubt
• A thorn weaves discouragement into your heart
• The piercing of a thorn produces weakness
• God decides when to remove a thorn

I don't know if you are experiencing a THORN... you can definitely tell me about it if you are! But, the most important things I took from this week relates to the result of a thorn when you give it to God - 

His GRACE is Sufficient!!! Hooray!! 

God promises over and over in His Word that He works for the GOOD! He uses evil for GOOD. His grace is seen in our weakness and in our submission to Him.  Whatever is in your past or your present or your future that is "bad" GOD WILL MAKE IT SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL - just like a rose in the midst of the thorns!!! 

The reason God allowed Paul to experience the "thorn in his flesh" was to keep him from becoming CONCEITED.  God CALLS us to humility!!!!! 

This is soo cool: Humility is a part of the character of God! 

Psalm 113:

¹ Praise the Lord!
   Yes, give praise, O servants of the Lord.
      Praise the name of the Lord!
 ² Blessed be the name of the Lord
      now and forever.
 ³ Everywhere—from east to west—
      praise the name of the Lord.
 ⁴ For the Lord is high above the nations;
      his glory is higher than the heavens.
 ⁵ Who can be compared with the Lord our God,
      who is enthroned on high?
 ⁶ He stoops to look down
      on heaven and on earth...


The LORD STOOPS DOWN! He humbles Himself to know us. To love us. WOW!!! Cool, huh??? He calls us to be humble so we can be more like Him. 


Throughout the Old Testament God promises HONOR to the humble (Proverbs 15:33, 18:12, 29:23).

Those who have humility:

Are regarded by God (Isaiah 66:2)

Are delivered by God (Job 22:29)

Are lifted up by God (James 4:10)

Are exalted by God (Luke 14:11)

Are the greatest in God's kingdom (Matthew 18:4)

Receive more grace (Proverbs 3:34)

Are upheld by honor (proverbs 18:12)

and my favorite....

ENJOY THE PRESENCE OF GOD 

The high and lofty one who lives in eternity,
      the Holy One, says this:
   “I live in the high and holy place
      with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.
   I restore the crushed spirit of the humble
      and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

Isaiah 57:15

I love the words RESTORE and REVIVE and I need them daily.  We all need courage and we all need His presence.




Humility finds its origin in the character of God.  God adds blessgings to the humble.  Acceptance of our circumstances gives us humility.  WE are to put on this valuable attribute and wear our humility to bring GLORY TO GOD.


God is all-powerful and when He brings power to your weakness, BUCKLE UP. You will see mountains move and hearts of stone made new.


This is so true. In the thing I decided was my thorn - I claimed God was who He says He is and I claimed that He is powerful and I prayed and I trusted and I have seen VICTORY! 
That has been a word that I have cherished over the past year... V.I.C.T.O.R.Y.
Victory over sin, over doubt, over fear, over shame brings beauty, glory, honestly, goodness, and restoration. 


I pray for whatever your thorn or situation is that you will see victory and healing and that HE IS SUFFICIENT. HE IS ENOUGH. HE IS GOOD. 

A new breed...

I'm doing good blogging this week... surprisingly!


I never know how to start a new topic of what's going on in my head... so just go with it...

Teen Girls In Faith


This is a group that was created out of a need for something more.


During the Monday night Girls' Bible Study, I kept feeling a need to go deeper to become more transparent, but it's tough. We have a LARGE group of (soon to be) 9th graders and a LARGE group of (soon to be) 11th graders. We also have several 7th and 8th graders. If you know anything about 11th graders or girls in general, they don't really enjoy sharing their deepest secrets and struggles with girls in middle school and in huge settings where trust is iffy. So, I felt an urge to have a more intimate time with the 11th graders after church on Wednesday nights. It’s just a time for the older girls to come together, encourage each other, and talk about what’s REALLY going on in their lives. My hope is to be able to have a more personal time with each groups of girls. I wish I could have personal time with EACH girl EVERY week. I long for 72 hours in each day so I could just fill it up with ministry and time with people!


Anyways.. so we started this group in about April and it has been PHENOMENAL for ALL involved. I have heard testimonies, encouragement, words of wisdom, struggles, growth, and seen Christ like never before. A few weeks ago some of the girls developed a new question – WHAT ABOUT THE BOYS?!?! The girls were learning and growing in Christ. The boys were learning and growing in Christ. But it was very separate and they didn’t TALK about it and WALK it together. So… I talked with Jacob and because of a burden on the girls heart to have unity in their grade/group, the boys joined us!


It was awkard at first. They didn’t know what they were getting themselves into, but they were WILLING and they SHOWED UP. That in itself was a HUGE deal. The first week they came we decided we wanted to meet as the LEADERSHIP group. We, as the girls, still need GIRL time! Ha! So we opted for an hour of GIRL TIME/TALK and then the boys could come in each week! Ha! I love that! I love time with those girls! It’s marvelous!


One of the things, maybe the MAIN thing, that brought the girls to a deeper level, a deeper trust, and a deeper understanding of each other was by sharing our testimonies. There was a lot of crying, laughing, celebrating, hurting, and praying.


For the guys and girls together, we decided that sharing all of our stories would bring us to that same place.


Last night, some of the boys shared.


AMAZING!


Many people say “all the good guys are gone,” “Where are the Christian guys?”blah, blah, blah…
HEY GIRLS – A NEW BREED OF GUYS ARE BEING MADE IN CHRIST!
 
A group of guys shared their stories last night.
They confessed struggles.
Told of the change that is happening in their lives.
Encouraged each other.
Apologized for wrongdoings and forgave in return.

It was good. Really good.
I was blessed.


God is GREAT!


I’m so excited about this NEW BREED!!!


Pray for these guys. It’s tough to be a Godly guy ESPECIALLY in high school!!
Lift them up. And celebrate them!

Old School Student Life!!!

I'm going Back to camp this weekend!! 

I'm really pumped! I wanted to share some old school pics from student life when Jacob and I were in youth!!! 

Aren't we cute?? 

I know, it looks like I took this picture yesterday even though I was probably 15!!! Hah! No wonder people always think I'm a high schooler! 

Please note that me and Jacob were ONLY "best friends" here. Haha! Could have fooled me! 

love this! :)

I love camp for many reasons and I hope the youth really allow themselves to EXPERIENCE camp and just the presence of God that IS THERE! 

I love camp because:

bond with your youth group

meet so many new people

 come face to face with the GOD OF THE UNIVERSE!

You get to wear bandanas!!

You get to chant cheers and go crazy all the time! 

Kristian Stanfill - hehe!

YOUTH WORSHIPPING JESUS WITH ABANDON

It's okay to be a morning person

camp food - yum!

water games

ropes courses

wonderful counselors who are so pumped and remind me of Pine Cove! 

intentional time with people

face paint

no sleep

lots of pictures! 

one piece bathing suites! ha! 

...

I love camp. That's obvious. I pray God is THERE and we get out of the way and let Him MOVE and CHANGE and ENGAGE! 

Week one of BRAVE

So... I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed my first week of Angela Thomas' "BRAVE" study!!! 

I am dumb and didn't put 2 and 2 together!!! God really blessed me this week.

So... I am a "devo leader" for a women's group at church. I don't know why I was asked to be the leader b/c I feel like the other women have SO MUCH to offer and I want to learn from them, but here I am... the leader. Our last meeting of the semester was in May. I was feeling REALLY WORN OUT! You know the feeling - overwhelmed, exhausted, want to lock yourself in your closet and cry for a while kind of feeling?? And I suspected I wasn't alone. I came up with a devo that could have turn into a sermon very easily about being WORN OUT.  I even blogged about it here.  Then I started this study and didn't realize that the topic "I AM WORN OUT" would be exactly what God was leading me to talk about to the ladies group at church!!! I even used ANGELA THOMAS' 8 PROVISIONS FOR THE WORN OUT WOMEN!!! HELLO? Anyways... when my distracted mind FINALLY realized it... I got really excited! How fun that I was being leading to teach a small group of women this devo and the leaders of this Bible felt the same guidance to teach more women about it!!! Oh... my God is always up to something!! I love it!! :) 

But the week was so RICH!! Here's some quotes: (italicized = my emphsis/thoughts)

Day 1: Maybe some women are more organized. Maybe some live inside stronger (hotter) bodies.  But the truth of our humanity is that NO SUPERWOMAN EXISTS ON THIS EARTH. (what a HUGE reminder to my over-active brain!). We each have been created by God, fully human and walking around with human needs and human frailties.

I AM HUMAN! HE IS ABLE! 

The man declares, I AM WEARY, O God;

I AM WEARY, O God, and WORN OUT! Proverbs 30:1

Day 2: God knows that good work makes a good woman good and tired. WIPED OUT. Flat as a pancake. Work is supposed to make you tired. It's how we're supposed to feel when we've given all we have to take care of our families or to finish a big assignment or to get to the other side of final exams. We're supposed to be tired... You see, we won't EVER get to some spiritual place where we balance just right and delegate just right and never experience weary or worn out again. Honestly, I think if you get there, YOU MAY BE FORSAKING SOME REALLY GREAT WORK GOD IS CALLING YOU TO DO!!! 

Day 3: May of us are doing great worldly things to care for ourselves and yet not living with an INSIDE STRENGTH to counter our SOUL WEARINESS!!!!! - Getting deep here ladies!!! Don't just depend on your coffee (of frap for me), pedicures, and shopping for rest - HE IS OUR STRENGTH! ouch! 

Isaiah 40:28-31 (also used in my previous WORN OUT blog!)

A HOPE FIRMLY CENTERED ON THE LORD RENEWS OUR STRENGTH! 

Day 4: YOUR CREATOR GETS YOU!!! (I love this!! I love when people GET me - I don't think many people truly understand me, but WHAT COMFORT to know that my Savior and Sustainer GETS me!! AHH!) He understands your crazy life. (at least one of us does! ha!) He knows that you work until exhaustion. He SEES how many people need your time, your input, and your energy.  He is COMPLETELY aware of your design. God cares for His worn-out girls. Really and truly HE DOES! 

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened and I WILL GIVE YOU REST!!!  Matthew 28:11 

Day 5: This day was a lot of Scripture that relates to the last 3 provisions. All Scripture is wonderful and refreshing but I loved this thing that I'm about to tell you. This was under provision #8 Godly friends refresh your soul.

When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth he said that his friends Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus (my friends don't have very interesting names) "have refreshed my spirit and yours. You should recognize the value of people like these!!!!" 1 Cor. 16:18. 

Maybe we meet two or three people who refresh our souls. 

As I read this, I just wanted to call my besties and have a cuddle fest!!! I have WONDERFUL women in my life who ASBOLUTELY refresh me like no one else!! I am so grateful for my mommy and my closest friends!! :) You refresh me everytime I talk with you.

But think - Are you a soul refresher?????? 

I pray I am. O... I pray I am. 

That was just a snapshot of my week.  During the video session Angela said something so powerful. If you know me, you know I'm awful with quotes so I can't promise it's accurate but this is what it meant to me:

I WILL NOT LIVE AFRAID OF BECOMING WORN OUT. I WILL LIVE FOR THE GLORY OF GOD, BECOME TIRED, AND BE RENEWED BY HIS STRENGTH. I WILL HAVE PERFECT AND ETERNAL REST WITH MY SAVIOR IN HEAVEN!! 

Yay for the first week!!! Hope you were blessed by it too!!! 

being a woman...

So this week, I have had the opportunity to BE A WOMAN!! It's been fabulous!

I got to go to my FIRST EVER women's Bible Study!!!! I got to participate and it was for "adults." Very exciting to my easily amused heart! The women at my church are going through a summer Bible study - Brave by Angela Thomas!!! It's phenomenal! Lately, I haven't felt that I'm suppose to have a supplement to reading the Bible. I tried some... the good ones... Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer... - but kept feeling like He ONLY wanted me to have HIS WORD! I don't think Bible Studies are "bad," but we can't replace STUDYING THE BIBLE with a study on the Bible through someone else's experiences/opinions. Anyways... God has assured me that this is a study for me! The study is titled: BRAVE: HONEST QUESTIONS WOMEN ASK! Yes, PLEASE!!! :) I love honestly and I love learning from other women... then I read the topics we would be studying - the common struggles that WOMEN have:
I am afraid to dream big.

I am worn out.
I am suffering with a thorn.
I am undisciplined.
I am trembling inside.
I am invisible.
I am broken.
AHHH!!!! Yes, PLEASE!!! That is me and I'm SO happy that I'm not the only messy woman in Troy! :) I'm so excited about how He is going to reveal Himself to me through this study and AS I CONTINUE to read His Word! - I'm still in Deuteronomy and LOVING it! Who knew!?  I will probably talk alot about what I'm learning through this so GET READY women!! :)

This week was Vacation Bible School and our church does it a little different for the youth. Most churches allow make the youth teach/work VBS. We actually have youth VBS.  It's more laid back, mature, different curriculum, and more... youthy. I had to come to the realization that the youth is JACOB'S JOB! :( I know you are like... yea... duh! But I love his job. I love being there and investing in the girls' lives and just ministering all day. I wish I could have been a bigger part of VBS, but I couldn't... b/c I'm an adult and have a job.  I had to realize that I am CALLED to have a different job right now. My job is my mission field and my loyalty is here. I don't like that I can't be involved in EVERY activity that happens with the youth group, but MY GOD is bigger and KNOWS what He's doing. One day... I'm not going to work OR have create a job for myself that is a girls/Deaf missions position!!! That would be the dream! And I'm learning how to DEARM BIG so here I go! :) Anyways... VBS was great! Jacob and Haleigh did an AWESOME job and the youth adore them. I love seeing people being used to serve and glorify the Lord! :)

More "womany" things - I am filling out my paperwork to become full time FINALLY!!!! :) SOOOO exciting but so complicated! insurance (yay for state benefits!). retirement (wow! i start and plan when i finish - crazy!). life insurance (morbid). and all the other womany things.  It's exciting to be signing my life and time away! I'm excited about this change in my life and hope other changes will accompany it! ***pray for house process - i'm not going to talk about it b/c i feel REALLY STUPID when it falls through so just pray for closure***

I am also learning that I am not superWOMAN. I long to be good at everything... but I can't. I am happy that I can't. I am satisfied knowing that HE is the only adequate One. He is my strength, my passions, my rest, my abilities, my character. It's not a fun lesson to learn though - I can't do it all....



Just some things...

• I'm so pumped about going to Student Life camp in TWO weeks!!! I can hardly contain myself! If you know anything about me... you know I LOVE CAMP!!! I love bandanas at camp! I love being dirty and LOUD at camp! I love JESUS at camp!!! - We are taking the youth to camp at Louisiana Tech at the end of the month. I think I'm more excited than they are! Ha! I would live at camp for real! Be praying for us. Pray for open hearts. open minds. a passion to worship Him. a hunger for His Word.
• I just got back from the Alabama Association of the Deaf Conference in Birmingham. They did an excellent job putting it together! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish I could have spent more time with by bestie Katy and my mommy... but that's life. What did I learn from the conference: 1) I don't have to know it all and I will never know it all. 2) I don't challenge myself. 3) I don't understand people sometimes - the Deaf community is SO strong and so passionate and CAN DO SO MUCH together... the community has the fire, the power, and the vision. That's all I know to say about that...
• My husband is wonderful. He led worship on Sunday for big church while our music minister was on vacation. I love seeing him worship and worshipping with him. He hasn't had the opportunity to lead worship lately so it blessed my heart. :)
• My BESTIE has a blog and I'm pumped about it.  Follow her: http://emilyjoy-totheworld.blogspot.com/. She's very clever and funny... WAY funnier than me.  She loves Jesus and I honestly don't know where I would be without her. I miss being with her 22 hours of everyday! That's how we were in college and it was wonderful. She is just a good person :)
• My neice, Johanna will be here in LESS THAN 2 MONTHS!! Ahh!!!! So crazy!! I'm so pumped. I also just found out that 2 of my cousins are pregnant!! I think something is in the water.  I am now officially on a water fast.  Only sweet tea for me for the next.... 10 years! Just kidding mom... not 10 years... maybe 5 or 8 or something.
• This weekend is Father's (is it Fathers' or Father's... hmm... interesting thought) Day. Lots of emotions are involved in this one for me: forgiveness, love, thankfulness, striving for the opposite of bitterness, challenging, grace, mercy, hope.  I am thankful for all the men who have played such an important role in my life... SO THANKFUL. My youth pastor Ernie - such an amazing man of God and he has prayed fervently with me for 10 years and counting. My (now) father-in-law Mr. David, he accepted me as the crazy girl I am since day one and has encouraged me in that. My PawPaw - I don't even know where to begin... this is my PawPaw - he hurts when his (grand)children hurt, he celebrates when we celebrates, he laughs when we laugh, he cries when we cry, and he wants to beat anyone up who breaks our hearts! He is a wonderful man.  My daddy - I am thankful for so many memories growing up and the stories I have with him. I hope there will be many more to come :)

My favorite picture of restoration and a God who forgives and who allows His children to learn to forgive... and love.

HaPpY aNnIvErSaRy JaReD & aShLeY!!

Today my brother and sister-in-law have been married for THREE YEARS!!! They are the wise, old, married couple!!!

I was at their wedding.

It was beautiful.

Here they are seeing each other before the wedding! :)

Aren't they pretty?

Here is the Morgan side of the family! Please note how different my hubby looks? :)

Mrs Christina looked beautiful as the mother of the groom. She was fancified! :) So was Mr David. He was looking spiffy!

AND SURPRISE, SURPRISE... AT THEIR WEDDING... GUESS WHO CAUGHT THE BOUQUET?

ME! :)

Here I am with my boyfriend at the time! :) We were hot and sweaty because the wedding was in Alabama where it's ALWAYS hot and sweaty! 

On a serious note:

Jared and Ashley are VERY special to us.

They have continually modeled what it means to be a couple after God's heart. 

They have been examples of how to serve the Lord, be faithful financially, obey God's guidance in all stages of life, and fervently pray for one another.

I have seen victory over the Enemy time after time in their marriage because they LIVE BY THE POWER OF GOD (1 Cor 4:20).

 Jared has been a wonderful (for lack of a better word) brother to Jacob in every way. He has been like a brother to me since I was an 8th grader! ha! We both look up to him and are beyond thankful that he is our brother.

Ashley's entrance into the family has been so exciting and joyful! So happy she's a Morgan alongside me. She is image of a woman who fears the Lord and lives to serve Him. She loves Jesus and loves her husband.

Currently, they are preparing to, first... HAVE A BABY!

She's preggers with baby Johanna!!!! So excited for her arrival in AUGUST!!!! So fun!! We are going to have another neice! :)

They are also preparing to GO! They will be leaving early next year for the mission field.  They don't have their exact location yet. Pray that the Lord would go before them and mark every footstep clearly for them to follow. Pray for a healthy baby and a child who grows up loving the Lord and embracing the life of a servant.

Here's our first picture all together:
The Morgans!

The BEAUTY I've seen lately!!

I haven't been a very good blogger recently. Probably because 1. I'm busy, 2. I don't know how to put into words what I'm learning, and 3. I just feel like you always need a 3rd option! :)

I have seen so much BEAUTY and so much JESUS lately it's hard to put it into words.

First, we had our May Connection dinner! What a blessing. It was so good. I don't know of a greater feeling than when you know God has called you and a church to do something, you do it, and He is faithful and SHOWS UP!! It's the best! Here are some pictures for the May Connection:

The line for getting some yummy hamburgers, corn, chips, and lots of desserts!!

2 precious little girls that I feel in love with.  I can't even pronounce their names so I'm not going to try to spell them. :)

THIS IS SO POWERFUL:

We had a family come who was displaced by the tornadoes in April.  We have them fill out a card so that we can keep in touch with them.  Please read the amazing prayer request they wrote. The last sentence is AMAZING! My God is bigger. He turns ashes into BEAUTY!

We also wrapped up the school year/Bible study year in May.  The girls' Bible study had a special dinner at a Mexican resturant in town. They all dressed cutesy and we had a blast together - as usual!!! Here are some fun pics from that:

This is Haleigh. We teach the girls together. She is such an awesome partner! I'm blessed that she is still with us!!!! :)

Aren't they pretty? The girls that are covering their faces are GORGEOUS too! They are just... girls! :)

The other table! :)

It was a great time and great food!

We JUST got back from the Girls' Bible Study 2nd Annual Lake Retreat!! haha!

We had an awesome time! We had 14 girls go + Haleigh and myself. We dove into 1 Timothy 4:12 and really emphasized how to be an EXAMPLE for Christ!! Here's some fun pics from the trip:

We all went tubing!! It was a blast! The next morning we were so sore from all the fun.

These girls are beautiful. They say the most profound things I have EVER heard. We are not teaching them. We are all growing together! They are beautiful, faithful, and striving to be like Christ. It's BEAUTIFUL to watch and to be apart of!

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4